User blog:Yaviey/The Love of Dragons Sends Two Lucky Writers to SOE Live!
SOE Live promises to be an awesome experience for everyone in attendance. In addition to a full lineup of things to do, there are great announcements planned for Dragon’s Prophet and other SOE games. Knowing that SOE Live was a pretty big deal, our friends over at GameSkinny saw a great opportunity here. They were already looking for a couple correspondents to write regular features for their site about Dragon’s Prophet. To get the right people to express an interest in these positions, they offered two lucky writers a pretty sweet deal: if you had the writing skills to impress the GameSkinny team, you could have earned a free round trip flight to Las Vegas, a paid hotel room, an all-access press pass to cover SOE Live, and a year (12 month) paid contact to write for the GameSkinny site. We did say it was a pretty sweet deal, right? After going through numerous submissions, the two writers that will be joining us for SOE Live are Chad Albritton and Max Jay. We took a little time out to chat with our two new Dragon’s Prophet Correspondents before we all hang out at SOE Live in Las Vegas next week. Chad Albritton (seen above) has always had the goal of turning something that he was passionate about into a career for himself. His passion for gaming and this opportunity with GameSkinny is just the opportunity he was looking for! He’s looking forward to learning as much as he can during his one year contract with GameSkinny. Max Jay is shown above, exploring the world of Auratia as Maxplosion. Max feels honored to be able to work with GameSkinny, Sony Online Entertainment, and Dragon’s Prophet as part of his contract for the next year, and is super excited to meet so many members of the team during SOE Live next week. Hey guys, can you tell us what got each of you into gaming? Chad: I always enjoyed gaming growing up. I started with Oregon Trail, Rollercoaster Tycoon, and those infamous Jump Start games when I was younger. I suppose the blame can all be put on my mother as those learning games slowly transitioned into Age of Empires, Wolfenstein: Enemy Territories, and Sim City. The long commute to middle school and the discovery of EverQuest sent me on a long gaming streak that included time inAnarchy Online, Second Life, Dark Age of Camelot, EverQuest II, and many more. Max: I've been gaming since I was a little kid. One of my first memories is when my brother and my dad came home one evening with an SNES. I'll never forget how much I loved playingSuper Mario World and Aladdin with my brother. Over time my passion evolved at a parallel with the industry; as I grew and craved deeper themes within gaming so too did the industry grow into a monument to character and story. I think it all came into fruition when I borrowed my friend's PS2 in Junior High to play Metal Gear Solid 2; it was one of the first times I played a game non-stop from start to finish. I even forgot to eat that day. The experience just sealed the deal for me, and it's been an integral part of who I am ever since. While you game, are there character names or in-game handles you use most frequently? How did you choose these in-game names? Chad Albritton: The name I use in gaming is Chuina. Now, I'll admit, it is odd, and you may think it is creative, but the truth is that I received it while playing EverQuest back in 2002. Yep, I am a product of the random name generator. Max Jay: Lately I've been using the handle "Maxplosions" or "Maxplosion," for no other reason other than it makes me laugh. Unfortunately I made my most of my online accounts (Live and PSN) before I came up with this amazing handle, so I don't have it for those (yet). My older ones were mostly chosen due to my lack of imagination at the time. "Maxam589" and "Joecoolsblues589" isn't nearly as cool as "Maxplosion," right? I have no idea how it came to me though. I guess I said "explosion" one day and it clicked. What other hobbies or activities do you each take part in, other than playing games? Chad: Other than school and work, I am an outdoorsman, theme park fanatic, part-time DJ, and a writer. Florida allows me to visit the springs one day, and the woods the next. I love fishing on the lake, or surfing at the beach. If it involves physical activity, you can count me in! Writing is also both a passion and a hobby. I maintain a blog while writing releases for my new podcast EverCast, and of course writing for GameSkinny keeps me busy! Max: Aside from gaming I try to keep myself pretty busy. My main hobby would be writing though. I'm an aspiring video game journalist, so the only way to really get into the field is just to do it. Fortunately I have a great time researching the industry and writing about it. It's one of those things I could do seven days a week for 10 hours a day and not get bored (probably tired though). Aside from that I love going to the movies, trying new restaurants and hanging out with friends. I also enjoy making short films if I have enough time and money to fund it. It's something I started doing for fun with a good friend of mine in college and we try to keep it up when we can. What would each of you say is your favorite feature in Dragon’s Prophet? Chad: My favorite feature has to be the crafting. I love the fact that I can use my dragons to gather materials and can focus on what is fun about crafting, the economy! Crafting is very intricate in this game, a lot deeper than I imagine most realize. You can break down weapons and armor to gather recipes, and add catalysts to improve your chance to create a higher level item. After that you can add shards and reallocate resources to make that perfect set of armor or that killer weapon you have always wanted. Max: What I like the most so far is the combat system. I really love how the combos evolve the more you level. In so many MMOs a level just signifies a stat boost and a point to put into a skill tree. In Dragon’s Prophet it opens up more brutal combos and keeps the gameplay fresh. The game is constantly challenging me to try out new combos to see what is most effective. I'm not just clicking and watching. I'm actually influencing the outcome of a battle, click by click. Aside from that: the dragons (duh). Do you have any interesting stories of your experiences while playing Dragon’s Prophet? Chad: I was clearing the public event outside of Fatoia when a lone guardian challenged me to solo the last boss. Even though I was two levels under the boss, I was ready to proceed when he decided to take the mob on. I watched him die, laughed, and then proceeded to solo the boss and leave the area. Poor guy didn't have a chance. Max: I'm obsessed with flying dragons right now. I had seen some other players riding around on them and said to myself: "Aww man, I wonder how long it's going to take for me to be able to capture one of those beasties. I guess I'll just have to grind like crazy." Not 10 minutes later, I saw one. I don't want to use the word "squealed" to describe my reaction and excitement, but it may or may not be applicable (hint: it is). SOE Live is coming up soon. What are you looking forward to most from that show? Chad: There are so many things I am looking forward to: the one on one time with the developers, meeting fellow players, Vegas! On top of this, we have the possibility to get a glimpse at Citadel PVP (I so hope!), PlanetSide 2's new continent, EverQuest II’s next expansion, and EverQuest Next. The list goes on and on! Max: I think I'm really most excited to be covering it at all. I'm excited about meeting new people that love games as much as I do. I'm excited to chat with developers about their creative process, and what inspires them. I'm excited to be able to write about it, and meet other people writing it. I guess I'm excited about the entire thing; it's going to be an amazing time and I can't wait to dig in. 'Chad and Max, we’re super grateful that you took the time to share with our fans a bit about yourselves. We’re looking forward to spending time with you in Las Vegas at SOE Live next week! ' Category:Blog posts Category:News